John Updike, 3.18.1932 - 1.27.2009

We have lost a brilliant author whose insight, writing and thought are unmatched by contemporaries. John Updike has passed away. He was 76.

If you haven't read the Rabbit series, I recommend you do. Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest are incredible, outstanding, thought-provoking works that captured American small town life and middle class angst better than any other material I've encountered. That said, these novels are not for the young or especially sensitive or easily offended.

The series, now available in a single Everyman's Library text, displays tremendous insight into the human condition, as English majors so often say. Even the late Rabbit Remembered, which wrapped up the entire epic, proved worth reading.

Updike's observations of a couple whose husband had read Proust's entire In Search Of Lost Time series prompted me to begin reading all of the renowned but lengthy classic. I still remember Updike's commentary in which the wife's Proustian commitment was questioned due to her having read only Swann's Way, the first volume of the seven-work set.

If an artist is ever awarded a national holiday, this man's work, legacy and spirit should be among the very first recognized.